Val Verde County Texas map
29.88° N · 101.14° W · County seat: Del Rio · 3,233 sq mi
Val Verde County covers 3,233 square miles of the southern Edwards Plateau where the Pecos River, the Devils River and the Rio Grande meet behind Amistad Dam. It is larger than the state of Delaware, and all but a few hundred of its 47,586 residents live in Del Rio.
The pin marks Del Rio in the county's southeast corner. The long finger of water reaching north and west is Lake Amistad, filling the canyons of the Devils and Pecos rivers.
Where Val Verde County is
The county fills the angle where the Rio Grande turns from its southeast run out of the Big Bend and starts down toward Eagle Pass. Mexico — the state of Coahuila — is across the river on the southwest side. Terrell and Crockett counties are to the northwest and north, Sutton to the northeast, Edwards to the east and Kinney to the southeast.
Del Rio is 150 miles west of San Antonio on US-90 and 56 miles northwest of Eagle Pass on US-277. San Angelo is about 118 miles northeast in a straight line. The Legislature carved the county out of Crockett, Kinney and Pecos counties in 1885 and named it for the Civil War battle of Val Verde in New Mexico Territory; the name is Spanish for green valley.
Del Rio and the outlying settlements
Del Rio is the only incorporated city in Val Verde County.
| Place | Type | Population (2020) |
|---|---|---|
| Del Rio | City (county seat) | 34,673 |
Everything else is unincorporated: Comstock on US-90 near the Pecos crossing, Langtry another 20 miles west where Judge Roy Bean held court in his Jersey Lilly saloon, and the ranch communities of Juno and Pandale up the Devils River. Amistad Village and Cienegas Terrace sit along the lake shore north of Del Rio.
Roads
- US-90 – the main east–west route, running from Uvalde through Del Rio, over the Pecos River High Bridge and on toward Sanderson and Marathon.
- US-277 – north to Sonora, south through Del Rio toward Eagle Pass and Laredo; it shares pavement with US-90 through the city.
- US-377 – northeast from Del Rio to Rocksprings and the Hill Country.
- SH-163 – north from Comstock toward Ozona.
- Loop 79 – the business route through Del Rio.
There is no interstate in Val Verde County; US-90 carries the through traffic.
Lake Amistad and the dam crossing
Amistad Dam holds back the Rio Grande just upstream of Del Rio and is jointly owned and operated by the United States and Mexico through the International Boundary and Water Commission. The reservoir behind it reaches far up three canyons — the Rio Grande, the Devils River and the Pecos River — and the surrounding shoreline is federal land administered by the National Park Service as Amistad National Recreation Area. Bass fishing, boat ramps and primitive camping are what draw people to it; the water level swings widely with drought.
US-277 crosses the top of the dam at an international port of entry, one of only a handful of border crossings that sit on a dam rather than a bridge. The busier crossing is the Del Rio–Ciudad Acuña International Bridge in the city itself.
Laughlin Air Force Base and the canyon rock art
Laughlin Air Force Base lies about six miles east of Del Rio off US-90 and is the Air Force's undergraduate pilot training base, home of the 47th Flying Training Wing. It is the largest employer in the county and the reason for the steady traffic of training aircraft over the brush.
West of Comstock, Seminole Canyon State Park and Historic Site protects some of the oldest rock art in North America. Guided walks descend into Fate Bell Shelter, where Lower Pecos painters left large polychrome figures on the limestone overhangs thousands of years ago. The park sits beside US-90 near the Pecos River bridge, which is the highest highway bridge in Texas.